The frenetic mobile game "Disney Iwájú: Rising Chef" aims to introduce players to Nigerian food culture. They take on the role of a chef and serve street food or other typical dishes from Nigeria, such as jollof rice or deep-fried dough balls known as puff puff.

It was developed by Nigerian studio Maliyo Games, which specializes in games for smartphones and tablets. Company founder Hugo Obi says, "My vision is to see the rise of the African games industry. My biggest motivation is creating a pathway for others to succeed." 

Obi grew up in Nigeria and studied in London. "I came back to Nigeria because I wanted to create opportunities for people to learn new skills. Here are lots of people in my country and around the continent who aspire to make games. But they don't have the means to, because nobody has organized an environment for them to be able to do that. I felt like this is something that I could do."

This past summer, Obi promoted African games at Gamescom in Cologne. Now he's a speaker at Africa Games Week, which takes place in Cape Town at the beginning of December. There, African studio directors and game developers will meet industry experts and up-and-coming talent. The aim of the initiative, launched in 2018, is to provide networking and growth opportunities for the African gaming industry.

A young and growing industry

Obi estimates there are currently some 100 games studios in Africa. Most of the people in games development are still developing their skills, and not all studios have published games yet. The first studios on the continent were founded in the early 1990s.

Today, the industry remains in its infancy, but enthusiasm for gaming is growing steadily. More than 186 million people in sub-Saharan Africa now play digital games, and the number of gamers across the continent is forecast to rise to 212.7 million by 2027. Africa has a young population that is likely to continue growing. Most games are played on smartphones, as PCs and games consoles are expensive and not common in private households.

The players are there, but where are the games?

Most of the studios on the continent are located in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa. The developers program for all platforms — smartphones/tablets, PCs and consoles — as they want to appeal to players across the globe. But games from Africa remain largely unknown outside the continent.

One major problem is a lack of distribution, explains Bukola Akingbade, founder and CEO of Nigerian studio Kucheza Gaming, the leader in the African market. Completing and delivering games are the biggest challenges for African studios, she explains, adding that this is due to structural problems.

For one thing, there are no training opportunities for young talent in most African countries. If you want to develop games, you often have to teach yourself how to program.

In recent years, there have been training programs for developers such as GameUp Africa or GameCamp, sponsored by Google and Microsoft, but these initiatives are no substitute for university degree programs in games design or development.

Because the games industry in Africa is still young, there is a lack of experienced people who have developed and distributed successful games and can pass on their knowledge to the next generation.

Other challenges faced by developers in Africa include the purchase costs of expensive high-end PCs, an often unstable power supply and slow internet connections. There is also a lack of support from politicians, as participants in a survey for the Africa Games Industry Report 2024 stated. There is no state funding for games.

Games for a good livelihood

But Hugo Obi is undeterred, as he believes the games industry can provide many people with work. "I want people to have economic means. I want people to be able to have a good livelihood, and a global industry is way more robust than a local industry," he says. "The games that we make are an opportunity for us to tell new stories to the world. Every single time we make these games, we become better at making games."

Akingbade came to the gaming industry by chance through her sons. Her boys were no longer interested in television or movies, but instead watched other people play video games on the internet. That piqued Akingbade's curiosity. She realized that games play the same role for young people today as television did for earlier generations in the 1980s and 1990s. "For this current generation of teenagers and younger [individuals]: If we don't have a voice in video games as a continent, we would lose a significant part of our generation," she concludes.

'We have to tell our stories'

Africa is rich in culture, myths and stories that are still relatively unknown among the global gaming community. The internationally acclaimed role-playing game "Aurion: Legacy of the Kori-Odan," developed in Cameroon, was already showing what is possible back in 2016. The game uses African fashion, music and myths and places the story in an African fantasy setting.

Akingbade says there is no shortage of talented people who can create, design and program games. She's observed great enthusiasm for video games in Nigeria. "We have to tell our stories and find out a good ability to promote our games," she says.

This article was originally written in German.